On nearly all of my prints, my first few layers are flared out slightly. I'm using painter's tape for the bed, and the bed temperature is at 60 °C while the extruder is at 205 °C. This seems to happen regardless of print quality settings.

Here's one example below:

That extruded rectangle shape is 19.50 x 19.30 mm on the outside on the straight part. On the flared part, it measures 19.92 x 19.70 mm.

$\begingroup$that's a really hot bed, especially with tape. you shouldn't need a hot bed at all if you use tape. it looks like you might have too much smush on the first layer, which, combined with the really hot bed fuses the next couple layers after, especially on a small fast print like a square.$\endgroup$
– dandavisApr 28 '18 at 10:22

1 Answer
1

Overextrusion at the bottom layer (slicer setting) or an incorrect bed leveling (bed to nozzle distance too small), or

this could be the effect called "elephant foot" that is primarily caused by printers with a heated bed. This issue is related to unbalanced printing parameters: heat bed temperature (too high) in combination with insufficient part cooling.

The general remedy for these problems is to level the bed (e.g. nozzle can be too close to the bed). "Elephant foot" can be reduced by reducing the heat bed temperature, re-positioning the cooling nozzle and/or start cooling at a lower height. Please experiment with the print parameters by printing XYZ 20 mm test cubes till you find the correct settings.